Breanna Stewart Reveals 2026 WNBA Free Agency Decision on Liberty Future After CBA Agreement

Breanna Stewart plans to return for a fourth season with the New York Liberty.

Stewart wants to re-sign with the Liberty after hitting unrestricted free agency this offseason, she confirmed to Myles Turner on her podcast Game Recognize Game with Stewie & Myles.

"I'm gonna just set the record straight here: I will be staying in New York. I'm not planning on taking any free agency meetings, even though I am an unrestricted free agent," Stewart told Turner at the 38:20 mark of Wednesday's podcast. "My family is set up here, we're solid here... I'm gonna be back in New York, and that's all there is to it.

"So, good luck to everyone else in free agency, but I'm not a part of that."

Stewart has spent the last three seasons with the Liberty, including an MVP campaign in 2023 and a championship run in 2024.

Stewart played her age-30 season in 2025 at a $222,400 cap hit for the Liberty, although that amount is set to climb next season after she helped negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement between the WNBA and its players.

The new CBA raises the WNBA salary cap from $1.5 million to $7 million, a jump that included supermax contracts rising from $249,244 to $1.4 million.

Stewart isn't the only key player hitting free agency after spending the 2025 season with the Liberty. The rest of the team's top five scorers, including Sabrina Ionescu, Jonquel Jones, Natasha Cloud and Emma Meesseman, also had their contracts expire after last season.

The lone players currently under contract for the Liberty next season are Nyara Sabally and Leonie Fiebich, and the franchise holds just one third-round pick in the upcoming 2026 draft, per Spotrac.

The Liberty will likely need to make some moves in free agency in addition to re-signing some of last year's core in order to rebuild into a competitive team after last September's disappointing first-round exit from the playoffs.

The news that Stewart, who averaged a team-high 18.3 points per game last season while finishing as runner-up for the Defensive Player of the Year Award, is hoping to return to the Liberty could help motivate both returning players and other stars to sign in New York ahead of Chris DeMarco's first season as head coach.

Ionescu, who averaged 18.2 points per game for the Liberty last season, has also expressed interest in a return to New York. She told Bleacher Report in March that she saw playing for the same team for as long as possible as "the goal," and that she didn't think she would be busy in free agency "since New York is home."